Most cabinet ministers ’want Canada-style free trade deal with EU’
The Independent | 24 September 2018
Most cabinet ministers ’want Canada-style free trade deal with EU’
Most of Theresa May’s cabinet ministers now support a Canada-style free trade agreement with the EU, according to reports.
The Prime Minister will be urged to ditch her Chequers plan following its rejection in Salzburg and instead pursue a "clean Brexit", it is claimed.
Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt is one of those cabinet members who is thought to be fighting to convince Ms May to change her approach to negotiations.
Other supporters of a Canada-style free trade agreement are said to include Home Secretary Sajid Javid, Liam Fox, Andrea Leadsom, Penny Mordaunt and Esther McVey.
However other cabinet ministers, including Chancellor Philip Hammond, are said to favour a Norway-style deal which involves continued membership of the European Economic Area.
“In a nutshell, we now face a choice between a Norway-type deal and a Canada-type deal,” a source told The Daily Telegraph.
“More than half the cabinet now support the idea of a Canada-style option, while there are maybe half a dozen who favour Norway.
“This has now become about encouraging the PM to change her own mind and lending their support to do that. There’s no sense whatsoever that she needs to go, just that she needs to change her mind.”
The prime minister has so far promoted her Chequers plan as the only deal which would avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland.
After declaring that talks were at an “impasse” on Friday, Ms May said that staying inside the European Economic Area and customs union would make a mockery of the referendum result.
She also claimed that parliament had already rejected the EU’s second proposal of a trade deal that involved Norther Ireland remaining in the single market and customs union.
“Anything which fails to respect the referendum or which effectively divides our country in two would be a bad deal and I have always said no deal is better than a bad deal,” Ms May added.
The suggestion that the cabinet now favours a Canada-style deal comes hours after Brexit secretary Dominic Raab said the idea was “off the table”.
Mr Raab said that approach "can’t be right" because the European Union would demand unacceptable conditions on Ireland.
“What they’re suggesting is not just a free trade but for us to stay locked in or for Northern Ireland specifically to stay locked into the customs union.
“Now that would be a clear carve up of the United Kingdom in economic terms.”
A so-called Canada-plus-plus-plus deal is said to be the basis of the alternative plan for Brexit drawn up by Tory Leave rebels.
Jeremy Hunt refused to rule out a Canada-style deal on Saturday despite insisting that the government preferred to continue pursuing the Chequers plan.
